A retired probation officer accused of scalding her stepdaughter to death 50 years ago has admitted lying to police - but denied ever hurting the girl.

Janice Nix, now 67, wept in court as told jurors she had not laid a finger on five-year-old Andrea Bernard or her older brother Desmond, eight.

The convicted former drug dealer admitted she initially gave police a false account of what happened at the family home in Thornton Heath, south London, in which she said the little girl took herself off for a bath and got hurt.

Andrea ended up with severe burns to 50% of her body and died the following month in hospital. A coroner ruled her death an accident.

But Desmond Bernard approached police in 2022, telling them that Nix forced his sister into the bath and that he had heard her screaming: 'It's hot, it's hot.'

He said he was pressured into backing his stepmother's alibi with the promise that he would escape further beatings if he covered for her.

Nix repeatedly denied ever attacking the children, and said she would only shout at them or threaten to tell their father if they misbehaved.

Giving evidence to jurors at Isleworth Crown Court in west London, Nix said she was in the garden chatting with a neighbour on June 6 1978 when she heard a 'piercing scream' and rushed inside to find Andrea in the bath.

She told jurors: 'Andrea was holding on to the side.

'I grabbed her out of the side of the bath and I held her.

'She was like hanging on at the side of the bath.

'I know I was panicking, and I was crying, I remember (the neighbour) said to me "wrap her up, wrap her up".

'He gave me something, it may have been a towel, it may have been a quilt, I can't remember. I wrapped her up.'

The court heard Nix was 19 at the time of the incident, having moved in with the children's father, Desmond Bernard senior, while their mother, Angela, was serving a short prison sentence.

Jurors were told Nix then began beating the children, at least once or twice a week, often while Desmond senior was working away as a chauffeur.

Desmond junior told police in 2022 this included being hit with a pot, being bitten by Nix, and being forced to eat cat food.

Defence counsel Colin Aylott KC asked Nix today: 'Desmond described from day one having a difficult relationship and you used violence, what do you say to that?'

Nix replied: 'That is not true.'

Mr Aylott asked: 'It is suggested by him (Desmond junior) that you were responsible for beating and slapping him on a regular basis. Do you accept that?

Nix replied: 'No.'

He added: 'Desmond alleges you forced Andrea to get in a bath of scalding water - what do you say to that?'

Nix replied: 'I didn't.'

She denied making a deal with eight-year-old Desmond to cover for her and back her version of events that Andrea took herself off to have her bath.

She said: 'I was too upset, I couldn't have the conversation with Desmond.'

She added: 'We didn't discuss what actually happened again. Everybody was just sad.'

Nix initially told police she sent the children to each have a bath, and that Andrea later complained: 'Mummy, my legs are itching.'

She told jurors she changed her account when interviewed in 2022, and that she remembered running into the bathroom when she heard screaming, because she 'panicked'.

Weeping, she told the court: 'I know I should have been with her. I should have taken her to the bathroom and bathed her myself.

'I felt responsible.'

Asked how changing her evidence would 'diminish her neglect', Nix replied: 'I don't know, I was just a teenager, I don't know.'

Taking glasses off to wipe her eyes, she added: 'We are talking about a long time ago, I was scared of the police.'

She told jurors she could not remember whether or not Andrea was wearing any clothes when she pulled her out of the bath.

She said she was not sure of Desmond's motivations for making the allegations against her, having previously suggested there may be some dispute about an inheritance.

Jurors were told Nix, of Clapham in south London, had more than a dozen convictions between 1976 and 2002, including stints of nine and eight years in prison for drugs offences.

She went on to volunteer for charities, and worked for the Probation Service until she retired in 2019. 

Nix denies manslaughter and child cruelty.

The trial continues.